Eighteen years ago I was driving a turboprop around the east coast, pay was a bit over $50 000 a year and I bought a house for $220 000. The same job now pays a bit over $100 000 a year, but the house I bought and still own is now worth well north of $800 000. Basically pay doubled and housing went up four fold. Even allowing for the fact that house prices are crazy, pilots are being well underpaid.
COVID trimmed the numbers with many early retirements and people who left aviation never to return. There was also a reduction of new starters who couldn’t train, or saw QF A380 Captains on the news driving buses and went into something else.
Pax numbers are bouncing back to, and exceeding pre COVID levels with a reduced pilot workforce available to fly them. It’s time we got paid what we're worth.